Today, too, the news is stingy, apart from a few bravura pieces of the German fleet,1 which at any rate merit full admiration.

*

The Austrian government fixes a charge of 2 Heller for a special edition on behalf of the war relief organization. This very reasonable and humane measure is answered by the press immediately, with bitter resentment.2 The press wanted to practice usury itself in just the way that, in many other professions, unscrupulous firms turned up which thought it a good idea to exploit the war usuriously. It is a pity that the fusillade is not aimed at such betrayers of national economy, as it is against espionage. A pity that one cannot lynch the merchants and suppliers who are driving up prices, as one might any Serb. I believe that exemplary punishments of such commercial riff-raff would bring fresh air even to that sphere of life which has maintained itself beyond good and evil as the only profession in the world, and from time immemorial. No occasion is so well suited to drilling something like morality – even into the commercial unscrupulous – than the exigencies of war!

*

{648} It is gratifying to read that in England, Sweden, and elsewhere, admiration is expressed for German greatness!3

Today, too, the news is stingy, apart from a few bravura pieces of the German fleet,1 which at any rate merit full admiration.

*

The Austrian government fixes a charge of 2 Heller for a special edition on behalf of the war relief organization. This very reasonable and humane measure is answered by the press immediately, with bitter resentment.2 The press wanted to practice usury itself in just the way that, in many other professions, unscrupulous firms turned up which thought it a good idea to exploit the war usuriously. It is a pity that the fusillade is not aimed at such betrayers of national economy, as it is against espionage. A pity that one cannot lynch the merchants and suppliers who are driving up prices, as one might any Serb. I believe that exemplary punishments of such commercial riff-raff would bring fresh air even to that sphere of life which has maintained itself beyond good and evil as the only profession in the world, and from time immemorial. No occasion is so well suited to drilling something like morality – even into the commercial unscrupulous – than the exigencies of war!

*

{648} It is gratifying to read that in England, Sweden, and elsewhere, admiration is expressed for German greatness!3

2 See, for example "Eine Kolportage von Extraausgaben. Eine Zweihellerabgabe für patriotische Zwecke," Neues Wiener Journal, No. 7470, August 13, 1914, 22nd year, p. 6. According to this article, the charges would be distributed to the Red Cross, the Fund for War Assistance Fund for the Families of Conscripts, and the War Aid for the Families of Fallen Soldiers and Soldiers in the Field.